Addiction, drug addiction, alcohol addiction and mental illness are all brain diseases. A person susceptible to one type of brain disease (addiction) may also be vulnerable to another. They involve the same pathways, molecules and chemicals in the brain.
Mental illness and addiction often occur together and understanding this fact is a critical element in how to stop an addiction. This condition is called dual diagnosis or co-occurring disorders.
The Challenges Addiction Treatment Program
The Challenges treatment program uses highly individualized treatment plans to combat two of the biggest issues in addiction treatment:
1) The high rate of relapse for clients struggling with addiction.
2) The fact that mental illness and addiction often occur together.
Denial
Challenges Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Jeffery Huttman explains that denial is big part of addiction. According to Dr. Huttman, “The consequences of addiction usually get worse over time. Addiction is a progressive disease and denial and addiction go hand-in-hand. With people who have drug and alcohol addictions, the state of denial is like a slow slide downhill. It can even grow to the point where they are incapable of even basic self-care or handling daily life situations.”
“It is as if they are twisting facts to form a strange reality that gives them permission to continue to use drugs and alcohol despite knowing on some level that they are on the wrong path. Strangely enough, denial is not lying. When a person is in the true state of denial they honestly don’t know they are in it. A good analogy might be telling somebody about their snoring, which they deny. They deny it because they can’t see themselves doing it, but it is certainly evident to those about them.”
Addiction can be treated – but you need professional help. A call to Challenges at 1-888-670-5486 can be made for a screening or referral to another appropriate center or agency. Call us if you want to learn more about how to stop an addiction.